Introductory description

Did you know that the far-right movement QAnon may have been inspired by an Italian novel of 1999? Since the 1960s, Italy's geo-political specificity made it a most vital cradle of conspiracy theories, contemporary legends, and more or less fake news, which were later disseminated on a global scale. From the political violence of the 1970s through the 'urban legends' of contemporary, multicultural Italy or the response of 'Italian Theory' to the Covid-19 pandemic, this module will offer a fascinating journey into the 'glocal' intersections between Italian culture and the contemporary world.

Through the analysis of novels, films, essays, and newspaper articles (all available in English translation), lectures will lead you through the history of Italy's 'divided memory' in the 20th and 21st centuries, from the legends of WWII and the memory of Fascism through the terrorist attacks of the 1960s and 1970s, the emergence of 'controiformazione' (alternative information) and conspiracy theories in the 1970s and 1980s, the diffusion of urban legends across the 1990s, and the debate on post-truth of the 2000s.

In seminars, you will have the opportunity to discuss critically the sources examined in lectures and to be directly engaged in research through the study of a vast range of printed and audiovisual sources.

Assessment is based on a 3500-word essay (85%) plus a individual presentation, followed by group discussion, on a topic agreed with the module tutor (15%). It will be possible to devise individual essay questions, following one's own research interests. Formative assessment will be provided throughout, by means of feedback on essay topic and structure, in preparation for the assessed essay.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1
L: What is a contemporary legend? Examples, definitions, causes.
S: War legends, rumours, and fake news I: how popular culture reacted to the traumas of WWII. Case study: legends related to the Allied bombings of Italian cities after 1943.

Week 2
L: Is there a single truth? Towards an experience-centred approach
S: War legends, rumours, and fake news II: how popular culture reacted to the tensions of the Cold War. Case study: the UFO-craze of the early 1950s .

Week 3
L: The political violence of the 1960s and 1970s and the birth of 'controinformazione'
S: The terrorist attack of 12 December 1969 and the death of Giuseppe Pinelli: official truth and conspiracy theories. Analysis of texts by Dario Fo and Camilla Cederna, as well as of Marco Tullio Giordana's film 'Romanzo di una strage' (2012)

Week 4
L: What is a conspiracy theory?
S: Analysis of Umberto Eco's novel 'Foucault's Pendulum'

Week 5
L: Legends and rumours in 1980s Italy
S: Comparison of Italian and British urban legends (examples of the latter to be provided by students), and reflection on the ways they mirror specific social issues (e.g. immigration)

Week 7
L: Post-truth and the World Wide Web
S: Analysis of the transnational circulation of rumours across the web. Case study: contagion-related rumours, from AIDS to Covid-19; students' presentations

Week 8
L: The work of the Luther Blissett collective, post-truth, and Hyperreality
S: Analysis of Luther Blissett's novel 'Q' (1999); students' presentations

Week 9
L: Q goes global: from Bologna to the QAnon conspiracy theory
S: Analysis of how a far-left novel, 'Q', provided inspiration for a far-right movement such as QAnon; students' presentations

Week 10
L: Italian Theory and the Covid-19 Pandemic
S: Reading and analysis of texts by Giorgio Agamben, Franco 'Bifo' Berardi, Judith Butler, and Slavoj Zizek; students' presentations

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Given the variety of sources, analyzed texts will be provided through Talis Aspire and Moodle. Texts by Eco, Luther Blissett, and Fo are available in English translation in the Library. General introductory texts include:

• R. Aunger, Darwinizing Culture (2000)
• G. Bennett/P. Smith (eds), Contemporary Legends: A Reader (1996)
• J.H. Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker (1981)
• A. Denisova, Internet Memes and Society (2020)
• J. Foot, Italy's Divided Memory (2011)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Level 5: demonstrate knowledge acquired in lectures, seminars and from prescribed reading as a basis for individual research
• Level 5: demonstrate relevant factual knowledge about contemporary Italian culture and the coexistence of conflictual ideas of 'truth'
• Level 5: successfully communicate what they have learnt both orally and in writing
• Level 5: critically analyse a wide range of textual and audiovisual materials
• Level 5: evaluate the global reverberations of ideas developed in the Italian context
• Level 5: develop relevant IT skills including word-processing and the effective use of Powerpoint or similar for the presentation.
• Level 6: demonstrate a sophisticated and systematic understanding of the knowledge acquired in lectures, seminars and from prescribed reading as a basis for individual research
• Level 6: demonstrate and critically employ relevant factual knowledge about contemporary Italian culture and the coexistence of conflictual ideas of 'truth'
• Level 6: successfully communicate what they have learnt both orally and in writing, as well as frame appropriate questions and objectives of individual work
• Level 6: critically analyse and evaluate a wide range of textual and audiovisual materials
• Level 6: evaluate the global reverberations of ideas developed in the Italian context, also in relation to the current state of the art in existing scholarship
• Level 6: develop relevant IT skills including research on online sources, word-processing, and the effective use of Powerpoint or similar for the presentation

Indicative reading list

To be provided

Research element

Direct research on single narratives, legends, and rumours for the assessed presentation

Interdisciplinary

The module includes the study of literary and audio-visual material, as well as of oral sources. It includes input from fields such as ethnology, anthropology, and memetics

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ critical and theoretical skills through engaging with primary materials in English translation and, whenever possible, in Italian (the module will be in any case open to students with no prior knowledge of Italian or of Italian culture). It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Italian culture through analysis of primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from English and target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.